Run this [Memcached][] image with: $ docker run -d --name memcached-0 -m 128m -e MEMUSAGE=118 wking/memcached The 10MB difference between container memory and the Memcached-specific `MEMUSAGE` limit gives some overhead for the `memcached` process itself and auxilliary processes to ensure that `MEMUSAGE` stops us before we hit “out of memory” errors. Then [link][linking] to it from your client container: $ docker run --link memcached-0:memcached your-client Inside your client, use the `MEMCACHED_PORT` environment variable (which should be something like `tcp://172.17.0.8:11211`) to configure your client's Memcached connection. Linking like this *does not* expose the port on your host interface (that's what `-p` is for). You can spin up as many Memcached containers as you like (`memcached-1`, `memcached-2`, …), and link to any of them from any client container. [Memcached]: http://memcached.org/ [linking]: http://docs.docker.io/en/latest/use/port_redirection/#linking-a-container